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Background Monochamus alternatus Hope is one of the insect vectors of pinewood nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), which causes the destructive pine wilt disease. The microorganisms within the ecosystem, comprising plants, their environment, and insect vectors, form complex networks. This study presents a systematic analysis of the bacterial microbiota in the M. alternatus midgut and its habitat niche. Methods Total DNA was extracted from 20 types of samples (with three replicates each) from M. alternatus and various tissues of healthy and infected P. massoniana (pines). 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing was conducted to determine the composition and diversity of the bacterial microbiota in each sample. Moreover, the relative abundances of bacteria in the midgut of M. alternatus larvae were verified by counting the colony-forming units. Results Pinewood nematode infection increased the microbial diversity in pines. Bradyrhizobium, Burkholderia, Dyella, Mycobacterium, and Mucilaginibacter were the dominant bacterial genera in the soil and infected pines. These results indicate that the bacterial community in infected pines may be associated with the soil microbiota. Interestingly, the abundance of the genus Gryllotalpicola was highest in the bark of infected pines. The genus Cellulomonas was not found in the midgut of M. alternatus, but it peaked in the phloem of infected pines, followed by the phloem of heathy pines. Moreover, the genus Serratia was not only present in the habitat niche, but it was also enriched in the M. alternatus midgut. The colony-forming unit assays showed that the relative abundance of Serratia sp. peaked in the midgut of instar II larvae (81%). Conclusions Overall, the results indicate that the bacterial microbiota in the soil and in infected pines are correlated. The Gryllotalpicola sp. and Cellulomonas sp. are potential microbial markers of pine wilt disease. Additionally, Serratia sp. could be an ideal agent for expressing insecticidal protein in the insect midgut by genetic engineering, which represents a new use of microbes to control M. alternatus.

Dendrolimus houi is one of the most common caterpillars infesting Gymnosperm trees, and widely distributed in several countries in Southeast Asia, and exists soley or coexists with several congeners and some Lasiocampidae species in various forest habitats. However, natural hybrids occasionally occur among some closely related species in the same habitat, and host preference, extreme climate stress, and geographic isolation probably lead to their uncertain taxonomic consensus. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of D. houi was extracted and sequenced by using high-throughput technology, and the mitogenome composition and characteristics were compared and analyzed of these species, then the phylogenetic relationship was constructed using the maximum likelihood method (ML) and the Bayesian method (BI) based on their 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) dataset, which were combined and made available to download which were combined and made available to download among global Lasiocampidae species data. Mitogenome of D. houi was 15,373 bp in length, with 37 genes, including 13 PCGs, 22 tRNA genes (tRNAs) and 2 rRNA genes (rRNAs). The positions and sequences of genes were consistent with those of most known Lasiocampidae species. The nucleotide composition was highly A+T biased, accounting for ~80% of the whole mitogenome. All start codons of PCGs belonged to typical start codons ATN except for COI which used CGA, and most stop codons ended with standard TAA or TAG, while COI, COII, ND4 ended with incomplete T. Only tRNASer (AGN) lacked DHU arm, while the remainder formed a typical “clover-shaped” secondary structure. For Lasiocampidae species, their complete mitochondrial genomes ranged from 15,281 to 15,570 bp in length, and all first genes started from trnM in the same direction. And base composition was biased toward A and T. Finally, both two methods (ML and BI) separately revealed that the same phylogenetic relationship of D. spp. as ((((D. punctatus + D. tabulaeformis) + D. spectabilis) + D. superans) + (D. kikuchii of Hunan population + D. houi) as in previous research, but results were different in that D. kikuchii from a Yunnan population was included, indicating that different geographical populations of insects have differentiated. And the phylogenetic relationship among Lasiocampidae species was ((((Dendrolimus) + Kunugia) + Euthrix) + Trabala). This provides a better theoretical basis for Lasiocampidae evolution and classification for future research directions.

The complete chloroplast genome of Cryptomeria japonica var. sinensis Miquel was assembled and analyzed. The chloroplast genome of C. japonica var. sinensis Miquel did not have a typical quadripartite structure with the inverted repeats (IR) absent, and the size of C. japonica var. sinensis is 131,412 bp. The overall GC content was 35.4%. The genome encoded a set of 119 genes, containing 83 protein-coding genes, 32 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Phylogenomic analysis indicated that C. japonica var. sinensis is sister to C. japonica (Thunb. ex L. f.) D. Don.

In this study, the first complete mitochondrial genome of Chrysolina aeruginosa Fald was assembled and analyzed. The total length of this mitochondrial genome is 16,335 base pairs. It consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, two ribosomal RNAs, and an AT-rich region. Phylogenomic analysis indicated that C. aeruginosa Fald is sister to Chrysodinopsis sp. This study provides new molecular data for the further taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of the Chrysomelidae of Coleoptera.

Epicauta ruficeps is widely distributed in China and some countries in Southeast Asia, and plays an important role in medicine and biological control. The complete mitochondria genome of E. ruficep...

In this study, we sequenced the first complete mitochondrial genome of Cryptalaus larvatus. The complete mitochondrial genome of C. larvatus was 15,876 bp with 29.80% GC containing 13 protein-codin...

Background Leaf blight caused by Calonectria spp. is one of the most destructive diseases to affect Eucalyptus nurseries and plantations. These pathogens mainly attack Eucalyptus, a tree with a diversity of secondary metabolites employed as defense-related phytoalexins. To unravel the fungal adaptive mechanisms to various phytoalexins, we examined the genome of C. pseudoreteaudii, which is one of the most aggressive pathogens in southeast Asia. Results A 63.7 Mb genome with 14,355 coding genes of C. pseudoreteaudii were assembled. Genomic comparisons identified 1785 species-specific gene families in C. pseudoreteaudii. Most of them were not annotated and those annotated genes were enriched in peptidase activity, pathogenesis, oxidoreductase activity, etc. RNA-seq showed that 4425 genes were differentially expressed on the eucalyptus(the resistant cultivar E. grandis×E.camaldulensis M1) tissue induced medium. The annotation of GO term and KEGG pathway indicated that some of the differential expression genes were involved in detoxification and transportation, such as genes encoding ABC transporters, degrading enzymes of aromatic compounds and so on. Conclusions Potential genomic determinants of phytoalexin detoxification were identified in C. pseudoreteaudii by comparison with 13 other fungi. This pathogen seems to employ membrane transporters and degradation enzymes to detoxify Eucalyptus phytoalexins. Remarkably, the Calonectria genome possesses a surprising number of secondary metabolism backbone enzyme genes involving toxin biosynthesis. It is also especially suited for cutin and lignin degradation. This indicates that toxin and cell wall degrading enzymes may act important roles in the establishment of Calonectria leaf blight. This study provides further understanding on the mechanism of pathogenesis in Calonectria. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4739-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The pine aphid Cinara pinitabulaeformis Zhang et Zhang is the main pine pest in China, it causes pine needles to produce dense dew (honeydew) which can lead to sooty mold (black filamentous saprophytic ascomycetes). Although common chemical and physical strategies are used to prevent the disease caused by C. pinitabulaeformis Zhang et Zhang, new strategies based on biological and/or genetic approaches are promising to control and eradicate the disease. However, there is no information about genomics, proteomics or transcriptomics to allow the design of new control strategies for this pine aphid. We used next generation sequencing technology to sequence the transcriptome of C. pinitabulaeformis Zhang et Zhang and built a transcriptome database. We identified 80,259 unigenes assigned for Gene Ontology (GO) terms and information for a total of 11,609 classified unigenes was obtained in the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs). A total of 10,806 annotated unigenes were analyzed to identify the represented biological pathways, among them 8,845 unigenes matched with 228 KEGG pathways. In addition, our data describe propagative viruses, nutrition-related genes, detoxification related molecules, olfactory related receptors, stressed-related protein, putative insecticide resistance genes and possible insecticide targets. Moreover, this study provides valuable information about putative insecticide resistance related genes and for the design of new genetic/biological based strategies to manage and control C. pinitabulaeformis Zhang et Zhang populations.

Monochamus alternatus Hope is the main vector in China of the Pine Wilt Disease caused by the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. Although chemical control is traditionally used to prevent pine wilt disease, new strategies based in biological control are promising ways for the management of the disease. However, there is no deep sequence analysis of Monochamus alternatus Hope that describes the transcriptome and no information is available about gene function of this insect vector. We used next generation sequencing technology to sequence the whole fourth instar larva transcriptome of Monochamus alternatus Hope and successfully built a Monochamus alternatus Hope transcriptome database. In total, 105,612 unigenes were assigned for Gene Ontology (GO) terms, information for 16,730 classified unigenes was obtained in the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs) database, and 13,024 unigenes matched with 224 predicted pathways in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG). In addition, genes related to putative insecticide resistance-related genes, RNAi, the Bt receptor, intestinal digestive enzymes, possible future insect control targets and immune-related molecules are described. This study provides valuable basic information that can be used as a gateway to develop new molecular tools for Monochamus alternatus Hope control strategies.